The lady seated (1) holds in either hand the arms of the Duke of Burgundy, slightly varied as to quarterings. The picture is taken from the famous "Bedford Missal" in the British Museum, which is not a missal at all, but a Book of Hours, illuminated in France for the Duke of Bedford, one of the brothers of Henry V. It therefore belongs to the fifteenth century. The lady is sitting on what in heraldry is called "a mount vert," which in turn is supported by the little half architectural scroll-work below; her dress is purple, shaded with grey, in opaque color; the arms are painted in Prussian Blue and Vermilion, the gold being shell. The gentleman to the right (2) is Sir Nele Loring, a Knight of the Garter. Some time in the fourteenth century a monk of St. Albans, Thomas Walsingham, compiled a list of the benefactors of the abbey, and as far as possible presented his readers with a portrait of each. They are rather rough but eminently picturesque. The book is particularly interesting from the curious particulars it gives us as to the expenses of the illuminator. One Alan Strayler, it tells us, "worked much upon this book," and the editor or compiler ran up a debt with him of the comparatively large sum of three shillings and fourpence, equal to at least £3, 10_s._ 0_d._ of our money, for the colors he had used. The book came into the possession of the great Lord Verulam, better known as Lord Chancellor Bacon, and by him it was given to Sir Robert Cotton, who collected the Cottonian MSS. It is known in the British Museum as "Nero D. vii." from its place in the book-case of Sir Robert Cotton which bore the effigy of that Cæsar. Sir Nele, or Nigel, Loring died in 1386, having given the abbey many gifts, and as he was K.G. he is represented in a white robe diapered with "garters." Our next picture (3) is from a very curious and beautiful, but much injured manuscript, reckoned the number ii. in the collection at Heralds' College. By the kindness of "Somerset Herald" we are allowed to copy it. The book is a list of banners used probably at a tournament in the reign of Henry VIII. Heraldry became more or less the kind of "science" it still is under the last of the Plantagenet kings, and was kept up in great glory by their successors, the first two Tudors. The banner here given is that of Henry Stafford, who was made Earl of Wiltshire in 1509. It shows the swan, the crest of the Staffords, with a crown round its neck and a chain, and the ground, partly black and partly red, the colors of the family, is powdered with "Stafford knots," their badge. Across, in diagonal lines, is the motto "D'Umble et Loyal." These banners, which might well be imitated in modern illumination, are made up of livery colors, with crests and badges, and are usually accompanied by the coat of arms of the person to whom each belonged.